thedrifter
04-21-08, 07:26 AM
April 20, 2008, 11:36PM
Marines launch unprecedented effort to enlist women
By DOUGLAS QUENQUA
New York Times
The Marines are looking for a few good women.
Actually, they will take as many as they can get. Faced with the difficulty of recruiting during a long and unpopular war, the U.S. Marine Corps has started marketing itself to women in a concerted way for the first time. It is running ads in magazines such as Shape, Self and Fitness, which appeal mainly to female readers, as well as through more mainstream outlets such as American Idol.
In the latest campaign, a print ad shows a female Marine striking a martial arts pose in front of a crowd of men who are looking up to her as their leader. The tag line: "There are no female Marines. Only Marines."
The campaign is a big departure for the Marine Corps. In 1973, when the military dropped the draft in favor of a volunteer force, the Marines introduced its "few good men" slogan and ran at least one spot for women, reaching out to high school graduates and "college gals" with a brochure that had a picture of a flower on it.
In the 1990s, when the Marines Corps was having trouble reaching recruitment goals, it ran a scattering of ads in magazines such as Seventeen and Sports Illustrated for Women, using tag lines including "You can look at models, or you can be one." That outreach "wasn't as sophisticated as it is now," said Jay Cronin, management director of JWT, a unit of the WPP Group, which has been the Marine Corps' advertising agency for more than 60 years.
Cronin said the current effort is much different because everyone involved took the time to "understand the psychographics," that is, figuring out which women might actually want to join the military, and why. That is why the campaign aims at athletic women, not just all women graduating from high school, and the messages conveyed are more egalitarian.
Appeal to specific groups
Although most combat jobs are off-limits to them, women make up 6.2 percent of the Marine Corps and go through the same basic training as men.
Women are not the only ones being courted specifically. The Marines Corps is reaching out to Hispanics with ads in La Raza newspaper that emphasize family and honor ("Each unit in the Corps is a family, and each member knows they never stand alone"), and to Arab-Americans with a message about nationality and identity ("I am American. I am Arab. I am a Marine. I know where I stand").
Given the drumbeat of bad news from the lingering conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, where American military casualties recently topped 4,000, the sell can be a tough one.
As opposition against the war continues, Congress has ordered the Marines and the Army to augment their forces. All branches of the military have been reaching out to nontraditional audiences, but none have done so quite as emphatically as the Marine Corps, which is the fourth-largest of the five branches.
The Marines also broke from tradition earlier this year with a 60-second spot during several episodes of American Idol. The ad featured Marines standing in formation against various national landmarks. It was intended to appeal to a general audience, including parents and others whom military recruiters refer to as "influencers."
That ad "helped us get that female audience that we're looking for," said Steve Harding, a partner at the Marine Corps' media agency, MindShare, which places ads.
Small rise in recruits
The effect of the publicity is difficult to measure. There has been a small increase in the number of female recruits — to 2,507 in 2007 from 2,320 in 2006 and 2,282 in 2005 — but the Marine Corps says it is particularly pleased by the volume of responses to the campaign. The magazine ads include reply cards, and, Harding said, they yielded more than 1,044 "qualified leads" in 2007, though only two turned into enlistments.
One is Ana Castillo, a senior at William Chrisman High School in Independence, Mo., who mailed in a reply card last September after seeing an ad in a women's fitness magazine in the waiting room of a doctor's office. Her older brother is a Navy veteran, and while she had been seriously considering joining the military, the ad prompted her to take action.
Castillo is the kind of young woman being sought by the advertising. She plays soccer and softball at high school and says she is hungry to prove herself on more dangerous fields.
"The Marines are the toughest," she said in a telephone interview. "They have the longest boot camp, the highest standards. The Marines want people to actually want to be in the Marines, not just be in it for the money."
Ellie
Marines launch unprecedented effort to enlist women
By DOUGLAS QUENQUA
New York Times
The Marines are looking for a few good women.
Actually, they will take as many as they can get. Faced with the difficulty of recruiting during a long and unpopular war, the U.S. Marine Corps has started marketing itself to women in a concerted way for the first time. It is running ads in magazines such as Shape, Self and Fitness, which appeal mainly to female readers, as well as through more mainstream outlets such as American Idol.
In the latest campaign, a print ad shows a female Marine striking a martial arts pose in front of a crowd of men who are looking up to her as their leader. The tag line: "There are no female Marines. Only Marines."
The campaign is a big departure for the Marine Corps. In 1973, when the military dropped the draft in favor of a volunteer force, the Marines introduced its "few good men" slogan and ran at least one spot for women, reaching out to high school graduates and "college gals" with a brochure that had a picture of a flower on it.
In the 1990s, when the Marines Corps was having trouble reaching recruitment goals, it ran a scattering of ads in magazines such as Seventeen and Sports Illustrated for Women, using tag lines including "You can look at models, or you can be one." That outreach "wasn't as sophisticated as it is now," said Jay Cronin, management director of JWT, a unit of the WPP Group, which has been the Marine Corps' advertising agency for more than 60 years.
Cronin said the current effort is much different because everyone involved took the time to "understand the psychographics," that is, figuring out which women might actually want to join the military, and why. That is why the campaign aims at athletic women, not just all women graduating from high school, and the messages conveyed are more egalitarian.
Appeal to specific groups
Although most combat jobs are off-limits to them, women make up 6.2 percent of the Marine Corps and go through the same basic training as men.
Women are not the only ones being courted specifically. The Marines Corps is reaching out to Hispanics with ads in La Raza newspaper that emphasize family and honor ("Each unit in the Corps is a family, and each member knows they never stand alone"), and to Arab-Americans with a message about nationality and identity ("I am American. I am Arab. I am a Marine. I know where I stand").
Given the drumbeat of bad news from the lingering conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, where American military casualties recently topped 4,000, the sell can be a tough one.
As opposition against the war continues, Congress has ordered the Marines and the Army to augment their forces. All branches of the military have been reaching out to nontraditional audiences, but none have done so quite as emphatically as the Marine Corps, which is the fourth-largest of the five branches.
The Marines also broke from tradition earlier this year with a 60-second spot during several episodes of American Idol. The ad featured Marines standing in formation against various national landmarks. It was intended to appeal to a general audience, including parents and others whom military recruiters refer to as "influencers."
That ad "helped us get that female audience that we're looking for," said Steve Harding, a partner at the Marine Corps' media agency, MindShare, which places ads.
Small rise in recruits
The effect of the publicity is difficult to measure. There has been a small increase in the number of female recruits — to 2,507 in 2007 from 2,320 in 2006 and 2,282 in 2005 — but the Marine Corps says it is particularly pleased by the volume of responses to the campaign. The magazine ads include reply cards, and, Harding said, they yielded more than 1,044 "qualified leads" in 2007, though only two turned into enlistments.
One is Ana Castillo, a senior at William Chrisman High School in Independence, Mo., who mailed in a reply card last September after seeing an ad in a women's fitness magazine in the waiting room of a doctor's office. Her older brother is a Navy veteran, and while she had been seriously considering joining the military, the ad prompted her to take action.
Castillo is the kind of young woman being sought by the advertising. She plays soccer and softball at high school and says she is hungry to prove herself on more dangerous fields.
"The Marines are the toughest," she said in a telephone interview. "They have the longest boot camp, the highest standards. The Marines want people to actually want to be in the Marines, not just be in it for the money."
Ellie